April 3, 2013
So my interview with Hugh Howey went really well. I really like him – he comes across as a really great guy. Some things I learned from him… or rather noticed about him that are tickling my brain and that is:
1 – the guy spends a lot of his time talking to and meeting up with his readers. Over twitter, over meals, etc. At least this is what I assume from “watching” him (researching him over the last few weeks). I don’t know anyone who does this. And I’m talking about big name people that again, I’ve seen out there. Most people I see out there ignore their followers. Will answer 1 in every 10 posts on Facebook, the rest are ignored. They don’t have time for that. But Hugh, although I know he doesn’t reply to everyone, he does choose to reply to what looks like many people. The second part of that is that the people he has conversations with don’t seem to have many twitter followers or any kind of platform. He doesn’t seem to care about that. Accepting people for who they are – people.
My twitter following is small, maybe 150. I thought a few times, why is he interviewing with me? I told him about my followers on Facebook and the people on my mailing list, figured this would help with my insecurity and keep him committed to doing the interview — I also had my writer’s group for it to be sent out to. But why would he agree to it?
He believes in connecting — establishing relationships – with his readers, one person at a time. I guess? We’ve talked about meeting up for lunch or coffee or something, since we live fairly close to one another and had an enjoyable vibe going, so I’ll talk to him about this more – maybe.
But that’s what I noticed.
I’m not sure how I feel about this. Not sure if this is what I would do — or if maybe this is what I’m moving towards.
I think my experience is that when you spend time with everyone – give of your time so freely – you get used. It’s a waste of time, people start draining your energy, and they don’t have a following so it’s not like they are even promoting you…
We’ll go into this more lately, maybe – probably – but we’ll see.
2 – The second thing that I noticed here with him is that people encouraged him to publish. People encouraged him to keep writing. People kept telling him they wanted to read more. His mom and his wife edit his work. This guy seems to have support all around him. To him, the world is a friendly and giving place.
This is not true of my upbringing – and I know it’s probably not true of your upbringing.
No one has ever asked me to write more.
No one has ever told me to publish.
I had to have the internal drive and push to do this myself.
Sure, my mom told me I write beautifully — but that’s the extent of it. She never posted “good job” on my blog, never encouraged me otherwise. Things that maybe I would have wanted my mom to do… but yet, this guy seemed to get that.
Again, another thing I am musing over.
Maybe you will too…
What did you take away from my interview with Hugh?
Do you have a book inside of you? Self publishing or mainstream publishing is something you’ll have to consider as well — which route to go 🙂